Hard Times in the Neighborhood

In older literature you often read of people who have fallen on hard times. Or say, a homestead has fallen on hard times. It hasn't been kept up and the disrepair is disheartening. So don't read this week if you're already feeling faint of heart.

Our thanksgiving break was (I think) the most difficult entire break we've ever endured. Most breaks really are that, a break from the mundane or the struggle to keep up with your paperwork and your love for your students. This one was grossly the opposite.

Monday: Toby wakes up with a swollen side of a face. Other than that, he is not affected.

Tuesday afternoon: Tara calls. I must take Toby to the doctor. His face has become more grotesquely swollen. Dr. Arndt says it is a submandibular gland infection. Toby endures a blood draw (very patiently) and a anti-biotics shot on the front of his leg (not so patiently). But Toby and I understand each other very well, and the horror of this lessens quickly. Avery also begins throwing up after lunch on this day.

Wednesday: The first day of break. We continue to try to find our home after the move. Still in mind is the desire to visit Tara's family in South Dakota. However, we figure that maybe this is a bad idea. Toby and Avery both seem better today.

Thursday: 12:20 a.m. Tara says, "My stomach hurts." A few minutes later she proceeds to the bathroom. Her vomiting is so loud and uncontrolled that after the first round I retreat to the basement and sleep on the couch. She is up most of the night; I get a somewhat painful back from my resting position.

Tara sleeps away most of Thanksgiving. When I go up to get Avery, I find her covered in vomit. I take care of the children pretty much all day. We have pancakes for lunch and pizza or something for supper. By dinnertime Tara is perking up instead of puking up. Still it is a tough thanksgiving, one that Evan dismisses as disappointing because of the lack of thanksgiving feast.

Friday: Toby greets this day by joining the party of people who have tossed some cookies this break. We find him covered in vomit and screaming. However, he perks up quite rapidly and accompanies me to the doctor's for a recheck. The doctor pronounces the anti-biotics a success, declares him a victim of stomach flu, and sends us on our way. He also claims that Toby will throw up at least one more time, which he doesn't.

Tara makes the feast also this day. Though we can't have anyone over because of the illness, and though all of us aren't able to eat it, she makes the feast. It's really good, including the turkey, cranberries, and stuffing.

Later that afternoon, it is noticed that Avery still isn't any better, so Tara takes her in for urgent care. Turns out Avery has an ear infection and the stomach flu. It is one of Avery's particular talents to get more than one illness at the same time.

Saturday: Avery is whiny and uncooperative. She doesn't throw up so much, but still is not a cheerful participant in anything. I try to correct papers and referee the boys, who are getting crazier as the days without change drag on. I go to Katherine's Christmas Opener alone, as Avery is still unwell and can't be taken to anyone else's house. Evan and Aidan have a great time playing over at Tucker and Parker's house during the Christmas opener.

Sunday: 3:43 a.m. I wake up with a painful-feeling stomach, and yep, you guessed it. Though I typically don't throw up, instead I spend the next hour-plus on the toilet clearing my intestines completely. By morning I can sleep again but have no energy. Ken Sell graciously agrees to take my adult class. And when Tara goes up to get Avery, she is once again lying in a pool of her own vomit. We are utterly perplexed.

No one goes to church, in fact, no one leaves the house except for Evan and Aidan, who go across the street to meet one of our new neighbors, and old man who is out shoveling. They both pronounce him "nice" and say that his name is Roger. Oh, and Tara hits Walmart for a pre-mega-freezer-cooking-session shop-a-thon.

In the afternoon I read the Bible to the boys, correct papers, do lesson plans (every paper graded, every lesson planned for the first time in weeks), and read Giants in the Earth by O. E. Rolvaag. Wow, can I identify with this early 20th century novel. Maybe I'll have to blog that sometime.

Tara and I have been talking about facades lately, and how most of us keep them as unspotted as we can. For myself, I disagree. Yes, I would like you to be impressed with me. But I am as hard on myself as anyone else would be. I would love to say a few things that I haven't, and only haven't, out of respect for Christ. It is a continuous battle.